Colors of the Wind
by Kat Lee formerly Pirate Turner
Summary: Pocahontas is free at last, and now she and her loved ones will forever dance in all the colors of the wind.  Het.


Title: "Colors of the Wind"  
>Author: Pirate Turner<br>Rating: PG  
>Summary: Pocahontas is free at last, and now she and her loved ones will forever dance in all the colors of the wind.<br>Warnings: Het, Character Deaths  
>Date Written: 5 July, 2011<br>Challenge: For the XDisneyDreamers LJ comm's weekly challenge  
>Disclaimer: John Smith, Pocahontas. Meeko, Percy, Flit, and all other characters mentioned within are © &amp; TM Disney, not the author, and are used without permission. Everything else is © &amp; TM the author. The author makes absolutely no profit off of this work of fan fiction, and no copyright infringement is intended.<p>

Her animal brothers were waiting for her at her destination. They were all there, waiting patiently and smiling at her from the greatest elk and lone wolf to the smallest frog, but it was three animals more than any others that made Pocahontas' heart soar the very moment their eyes met. Her brothers were here, including those she loved as though they were her very own children.

She dropped to her knees and opened her arms wide, and the trio who she had missed terribly with her every breath since losing them rushed into her arms with joyous chirps, barks, and buzzes. She held them tightly, and tears flowed from all their eyes like rivers. They were finally together! Her family was whole, and Pocahontas wept for joy as she clung to the three beings she held dearest in all the worlds to her and vowed to never again let them go.

Meeko bumped her head with his and chirruped as his little, jet black paws pawed eagerly at her chest and shoulders. Percy wriggled against her, trying to bury himself into her doeskin dress so that she would never leave him behind again. Flit thrummed and rubbed against her, his delicate wings tickling her being.

She would never let them go again, she vowed, and she never should have let them go before. She should have kept them with her always. She should have broken free of man and stayed at home here in the wilderness where she belonged. The four of them could have lived alone together and survived well, and they would have been happy.

Oh, there was still another she missed as badly as she had missed them, but their lives would have been as complete as possible without him also at her side. She missed him even now, though the pain of his absence did not hurt her as greatly and vividly as it had ever since he'd first sailed away from her to get well. She remembered that day as though it had only been yesterday instead of many years ago. That day had changed her life forever, far worse than she could have possibly imagined it at the time.

Her own father had turned against her. She had betrayed him, went against his law, and he had never forgotten or forgiven her for saving her beloved John Smith's life. He had sold her instead, and then another John had come along and rescued her from the horrors of that world. She had gone with him into the white man's world and had found another, stranger Hell waiting for her in the land they called Great Britain. There was nothing great about that world other than their prides and the pain they bestowed upon her and others like her.

She had tried her very best to save her people, but Pocahontas had failed. She had always failed at everything great she'd ever set out to do except for saving her love's life, and she knew now that that never would have changed no matter how hard she had struggled to make the next day a better day. Men would always be full of their own prides and prejudices. They would never understand or accept her kind, but at the time, she'd thought she'd had no choice.

She was standing again now, hugging her brothers close against her breasts, when Flit suddenly zipped out from her grasp and stared into her eyes. Her eyes were still as large, innocent, rich, and deep brown as any frightened doe's, and Flit saw the pain of her memories shimmering in her eyes. He shook his head at her, and then he buzzed loudly to her, singing a song she had not heard since she had been young.

Pocahontas closed her eyes and let his words sweep over her. Her other animal brothers were talking to her, as well, and only Meeko and Percy did not join in their song as they cuddled with their beloved mother. She was free! She was as free as the wind now, and she would never have to answer to any one ever again! She was her own woman! She was safe here, and here she would live out the rest of her existence in the love and happy companionship of her true family and never again feel a moment of sorrow.

Pocahontas' brown eyes snapped open. She gazed into Flit's questing, reassuring eyes, and then she nodded, the first true grin breaking over her lovely mouth that she had worn in decades. She was free! Still holding tightly, and yet gently, to Meeko and Percy, Pocahontas turned on the trail that had followed her life and began to run. She ran with the other spirits dancing all around her. She ran with the wind through the foothills and trees, over the mountains, and across the valleys. She threw her head back and laughed as she even ran over the river.

She was home, she was free, and there was nothing left to hold her back, condemn her, or cause her any more pain ever again! She raced with the wind, listening to the spirits' songs and hearing Grandmother Willow again in her ears. She had never forgotten how to listen with her heart as her Grandmother had taught her, and here, in this realm, she heard stories of every spirit who was around her. She heard stories, and she shared her own. They knew each other immediately as no other family ever had, and at last Pocahontas was complete.

Almost. Even though she was happy now, there was still a thought that tugged at the back of her mind from time to time, one last memory that would not release her. There was still something missing, and her heart stayed searching quietly for that missing piece of her heart and life, of her being, though she was happy. She played with her brothers, her children, and raced with the wind, until one day, white clouds furled out before her.

She stopped, startled and her mouth agape, and then slowly, she shut her mouth. She had already been smiling - she hadn't stopped since being reunited with her family -, but yet now that grin grew bigger than it had been even since she'd been alive.

She knew instantly who she would see, who was coming with those great, white clouds. She heard again her Grandmother's voice in her mind. "Listen to your heart, my child. Follow your dreams, and be happy."

"John!" she cried as the clouds lifted, and she saw standing before her the man of her dreams, her soul mate, the only one who could ever truly entirely complete her.

His misty, blue eyes rose from examining his wispy hands to gaze at her, and he grinned from ear to ear. His eyes danced with merriment, and he broke out running as he called her name. "Pocahontas!"

They crashed into each other, their arms reaching out and wrapping immediately around one another. Pocahontas had stayed true to her word and never let go of Meeko and Percy since they had been reunited, and now the animals wriggled between them. It would have been a tight fit had they still had their bodies, but they no longer felt such constraints. Percy barked happily, his little stub of a tail wagging, and Meeko chattered loudly with his joyful approval of their reunion. Flit buzzed circles around their heads, and if any one had bothered to look at the pattern of those circles, they would have realized that he was flying in the shapes of hearts.

John ran his hands over his beloved Pocahontas. She felt as soft and sensual as he had remembered, perhaps even more so, and he clung to her, never wanting to let go of her again. "When I heard," he whispered breathlessly though he no longer had a need to draw a breath, "that you had died, I could not bare the pain." His fingers brushed against her long, raven hair. "I found your grave, and the last thing I remember was crying on it."

"It doesn't matter," she whispered to him, grinning. "We're together again! We're free! We'll be together forever right here!" She kissed him then, and he returned her kiss, holding her tenderly, with all the passion and love he had always ever felt for her alone. They knew not how long they kissed. It didn't matter for they had eternity to spend together now, and indeed they are still spending that eternity together, holding their family and each other tight, loving one another passionately always, running through the land, and dancing in the wind.

She had always believed in painting with the colors of the wind, and she had taught that to him as well as love. Even today, those old legends hold true. You can paint with the colors of the wind. You can close your eyes and feel your ancestors all around you, and if you listen to them and to your heart and then open your eyes and watch the wind again, you'll see them dancing there, the great Captain John Smith; his legendary love, Pocahontas; and their three brothers.

You'll hear the happy chattering of the racoon, the joyful barking of the dog, and the pleasured humming of the hummingbird. You'll feel their happiness, and if you listen and look just right, you'll see their human companions. You'll see them kissing or running together, hand in hand, with their children held tightly in their arms, and you'll know, as we all do, that these two have always been destined to be together and they are celebrating their destiny together in love's arms as they are intended.

Go now, my saplings, and never forget, I tell you while my old bark creaks slightly in the rising winds. Never forget to listen with your hearts and to paint with all the colors of the wind for only then can you find and grasp your destinies. Only then can you have the happiness you deserve, as my little Pocahontas and her John are doing now, dancing forever, together, in the colors of the wind.

**The End**


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